Cereal, canned goods, bottled goods, beer and the like are ordinarily packaged in cardboard boxes which are usually sized so that a man can easily handle a single box. Over the years, however, such manual handling of single boxes has given way to machine handling of large numbers of boxes wherein the boxes are stacked on pallets and moved with forklift trucks. A common type of pallet includes a flat-board surface, usually wooden, supported upon short, spaced rails. This pallet is typically about four inches thick. In use, the forks of a forklift truck move into the pallet underneath the flat surface between the rails to lift the pallet and stack merchandise upon it.
A more sophisticated development in this art involves the use of a slip pallet which typically is made from a 1/8" thick plastic sheet such as the plastic slip pallet described in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 29,192 to Anderson et al, which is hereby incorporated by reference. In use, the slip pallet is placed upon a flat surface to support a number of boxes which are stacked on the pallet. Slip pallets are preferable to regular pallets in many installations because they are much cheaper and thinner. The space savings possible with thin pallets is significant in many warehouses.
Slip pallets require a special type of lifting surface. The forks of a forklift truck cannot be used. Instead, a flat, spatula-like member, commonly called a platen, is mounted upon a lift truck. To pick up a load of stacked boxes, the platen is elevated so that its extended leading edge is beneath the slip pallet. The platen is then pushed underneath the slip pallet to engage and pick up the slip pallet and its load. The load is then moved to its new location where the load and slip pallet are then pushed off the platen.
While the aforementioned slip pallets satisfactorily palletize merchandise, they do little to protect the sides of boxes stacked on the pallets. For example, if the box load comprises cereal boxes or similar thin walled containers or packages, the exposed sides of the boxes are very vulnerable to being punctured if they are contacted by a platen or the gripper of a platen-type lift truck. While accurate estimates as to the amount of damage caused by such punctures have not been made, it is estimated that such damage costs businesses millions of dollars every year. Accordingly, a need clearly exists for a slip pallet system which will protect the sides of box loads from being easily damaged.